Labor Market Is Doing Fine With Higher Minimum Wages
Predictions of job losses and slower economic growth haven’t panned out.
Care to bet the prices here could support higher pay?
Photographer: Taylor Weidman/BloombergAlmost three years ago, we got a chance to watch a real-time experiment of the impact higher minimum wages would have on job creation after some localities passed laws to raise pay floors. Although opponents immediately decried the increases as job killers and as proof that leftists are intent on destroying the economy, the wiser course was to wait and see what the data produced.
We now have a growing body of evidence that tips the scale in favor of the proponents, bolstered by several decades of research on the subject. At this point, the clear conclusion is that modest increases in minimum wages implemented slowly over time don’t destroy jobs or hurt growth.